Canada has suffered a shock exit from the
FIFAe World Cup 2026 after losing to
Puerto Rico in the lower bracket final of the
CONCACAF Continental Championship in Mexico City. The roster featuring Liam
"resonal" Oberg, Gianluca "
sosa" Petrozza and Alexandre
"Taroco" Reis Pedrogam were heavy favourites alongside the
United States to reach the FIFAe World Finals in October. Despite its long history in the
Rocket League scene, It was the first time the country
agreed to compete in the FIFAe World Cup, having
missed the previous two editions. USA, who fielded a strong RLCS roster featuring NRG duo Massimo
"Atomic" Franceschi and Daniel
"Daniel" Piecenski alongside Shopify Rebellion star Jason
"Firstkiller" Corral, comfortably won the event, defeating Puerto Rico 4-1 in the grand final.
Canada was forced to field an under-strength roster missing key pieces like Cohen
"Tawk" Hawco, Jack "
reveal" LeDuc, and Owen
"PNDH" Young who all missed the opportunity to represent the country at the event. In March, reveal
released a statement co-signed by six of Canada’s most high-profile players expressing “serious concerns” over the process to build a team for FIFAe 2026 which was led by
Esports Canada. While ultimately nothing came of the statement publicly—three of the cosigners ended up representing Canada at the event—fans took note of the absences of both reveal and Tawk, who, having qualified for the RLCS 2026 World Championship in September, were sorely missed. This was in spite of the duo committing to
competing for Canada at the Esports Nations Cup in Riyadh before the competition was postponed to 2027 due to the geopolitical situation in the region surrounding the Iran War.
Underdog triumph
Puerto Rico came into the event as the only underdog with potential to disrupt. While they showed during the FIFAe Nations League that they were the only nation in the CONCACAF region that could feasibly upset the USA or Canada, once on LAN there was an expectation that they’d struggle against the North American titans. While their representatives Cayden "mercii" Pacheco, Leland "fade" Carrasquillo, and Kirran "Kiro" Barreto are far from being household names in the esport, they have been progressing as players in the bubble scene. 16-year-old fade recently represented NTX Esports in the North American LCQ alongside other emerging talents in Wilmer "plexi" M. and DappDapp and achieved a top-eight finish, while mercii and Kiro have both been one series win away from reaching a Regional Open this season.
Together, the trio proved to be the Continental Championship’s surprise package. They began the tournament by drawing to both Canada and the USA in the group stage, earning second place and reaching the playoffs. Here, they faced Canada again but were defeated 2-4 after a third game overtime went Canada’s way to turn the series. They then defeated Panama handedly 4-0 to set up another match against Canada, who were brushed aside by the USA 0-4 in the upper bracket final. With journeyman coach Aaron "Noxes" Cadiz behind them, Puerto Rico flexed their muscles, limiting Canada to just four goals across a five game series defeating the sosa-led team 4-1 to qualify for the FIFAe World Cup Finals for the first time. They will join the USA, Morocco, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Australia, Brazil and Chile at the Main Event in October.
